Took advantage of the one day this week that the TV weatherman said would be the best, with high pressure and no clouds. (I wonder if they say “30%” chance of thunderstorms when they have absolutely no idea what the weather is going to be...) We decided to give Utah Lake a break from our weekly assaults since she had become such a fickle mistress to so many and try something else until the channel cats complete their nurseries. Given some encouraging reports, I thought that maybe this was the year I take a few more lumps at Willard, which had rewarded my inexperience with unkindness the summer before last.
We got there early (for us) as the sun was bright as it lit up the higher ramp fees with cheer, along with the awaiting hordes of mosquitoes that we were obligated to feed. The water coming from the channel of the South Marina was like chocolate milk, but the main lake was glassy smooth and barely a breeze. "Niiiiiice…." I thought to myself as I checked off the box next to weather on my list of hopes for the day. It seemed that 4 – 5 other boaters had read reports suggesting the South dike. (Boy, I sure hope one of ‘em had a fire extinguisher in his boat, as we watched smoke billow out of the engine compartment. (Note to self, check fire extinguisher and be ready to help.)
We headed North to avoid the crowd. (I'm sure many a wiser fishermen would raise one eyebrow at my "logic" of where to fish...) The sonar pretty much showed nothing once we got our lines out… One deep diving Rap "tail dancer" in black and white, one lipless shad Rap in blue and a white, and fire tiger homemade lure completed the buffet, rigged up like I’d been taught. We snaked around at various depths for quite a while, but not an inquiry was to be made as we trolled all the way thru Freeway Bay and to the North Marina. (Note to self: Even the lipless lures will be destroyed on the bottom in water more shallow than 8’).
So…. we headed west to some spots that I marked on my GPS when I went out two years ago with a past BFT moderator who was showing me the ropes. Nothing... The water was colder than I expected when we started, not yet even 65, my son remembered it as being colder. But it had warmed several degrees as we neared the light pole. Still nothing… Does that mean I should go deeper, or shallower, or to another area? (Note to self: Find out what you are doing, cuz a recipe of from others t’ain’t workin’…) Rather than go home, I chucked out my list of “to dos” and just drove around out in deeper water watching the sonar to see if ANYTHING showed up as we headed to the GPS mark that I was guessing was the “island”. (Note to self: rename GPS markings in unit, and get more note paper to list everything that you don’t know about fishing Willard…)
Time to take a moment and just be grateful to get out on a beautiful day.
We saw some “wiper like markings” just after the 20’ deep water became shallower near the island. Finally, we chopped up the skunk in our propeller as opponents fought like a champs, but my son was the victor. He was rewarded with a sweet wiper that was a chunky 20”. Another pass and I got one, and it would have been awesome – if it was a white bass!
So, we counseled him to learn how to fight better sent him back to
school. OK, so this was workin’. I picked up a foot-ish walleye that
was one of the wipers school-mates. Obviously they were skipping class
together. (We varied our trolling speed. Just short of 3 mph worked
best, but one of the walleyes was caught going 4 mph or better as we
were turning around!) But the fishermen also had been held back a few years in their education, because obviously we didn’t know that fishing in the middle of the day was the worst time of day to fish. I pondered that as my son again brought in this wiper that was over 21.” WhooHOO! I don’t much care what anyone else might say, but this is a nice fish in MY book!
It was my turn for a biggun,’ but was rewarded only with another small walleye, and then FINALLY – my pole bent like crazy, this HAD to be the big one my son was hoping I would catch.
It wasn’t... I couldn’t believe a wiper of maybe 13” put up such resistance. But, we were totally pleased with our couple of keepers. It was getting later afternoon (water above 70 degrees) now and there was only one other boat we could see. Perhaps those other boats should have taken a hint from us newbies and stuck around.
FWIW: I'll show off my home-made rattle lure.
Gotta love it when they work! 
We felt totally satisfied with the day. We caught something on all lures, so that wasn't as important as just finding fish.
It provided the means to ask a few questions that I’ll open up to all. We had two planars with braided line. So how long of a leader do you guys like? And, so to you guys with pretty set formulas for trolling – what do YOU do if you aren’t catching?
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